I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 31: Task 6

It barely took a few minutes to get back to the sea snake. He had to stop once due to the clownfish he carried, slipping off his tail.

That was most definitely a nerve wrecker but he recovered quickly, although stabbing the slippery fucks a couple of times.

Making it back to Lili, he could notice the happiness on her face thanks to bringing not 1 but 3 of her favourite snacks.

Food, yes that can be labelled as the best way to win someone's heart. But in this case he's winning over an old lady's heart, although not wanting anything in return.

Through a bit of effort, the lady began to devour a whole fish and then went to the second, afterwards to the third.

At these moments Tim was reminded that snakes don't really chew their food. But instead, they absolutely swallow an entire fish!

Timmy was a bit shocked at first but adjusted after the second one, remembering how friends bantered about snakes taking like a week to devour their prey after swallowing them whole.

At the end, she gave a bit of a sigh and cited. "Oh that felt good. Thank you, young boy."

"I'm happy to help, hope this will get your energy back." Tim answered, genuinely happy for this old lady.

And afterwards he remembered why he swam all the way here to begin with, expressing it. "Okay now I have to go. I'm going to bring you more food later, or tomorrow maybe."

But yet shifting off topic, Lili kept the young boy here so she added. "You're a nice boy... who also seemed to be concerned about this reef. There is a way to help it you know."

"Is there?" Tim questioned, genuinely confused yet with a spark of hope.

It would be tremendous if all the dead things around this small radius looked better, more life filled like everything else in this reef.

Her tone arising for once, she pitched as if a madwoman aiming for world domination, each of her words having its own weight. "Oh there is and you better try to help, or else this whole reef will die."

"Anything, I will do anything!" Tim assured, becoming tad spooked of such narration, yet thinking. "I didn't know that clownfish can get snakes high."

"Life." The old lady murmured it.

And then continued with a louder blast, "We need life to revive this place."

Asking a rather dumb question, the stingray interjected. "And how can I find life in the ocean?"

At this point, Lili couldn't help gazing at the boy in utter confusion, with a low tone speaking as she wiggled her tail. "What?"

And afterwards found the motive to specify since this boy did a good deed earlier. "There is an entire ocean to find life in."

Able to catch up at last, he questioned just for reassurance. "So I need to bring fish here?"

Happier that her way is understood, she continued. "Yes. I've been here long enough to figure out that every fish works to keep the reef alive."

But yet Tim interrupted. "Except clownfish."

So she had to absolutely assure, "Yes. Except clownfish, they're pure evil!"

And then the plan had to be laid out. "We need to bring life here so journey out of the reef and convince fish to come and live here."

"You mean... anywhere on the reef?" Tim questioned, tad confused.

With a bit more energy to move around now, the lady arose from the reef she was seated on and specified. "Eventually yes, but for now we have to bring every fish right here so they can revive the reef and keep the rest around it from dying."

"Oh okay okay I understand you." He assured, wiggling on his spot as a celebration of understanding Lili who speaks the stingray language for some reason.

"So you'll do it?" She questioned, wanting to assure once picking up that Timothy wasn't the smartest fish out there.

"Yes!" He answered, tone arising higher and portraying motivation.

Happier and moving around less for the sake of not intimidating the young stingray, she expressed deeper thoughts. "I hope you can start as soon as possible. I can't reward you with anything but please use all the skills you have to keep this reef from dying. Marlo trusts you so I can as well."

Her words reminding the boy something important, he chirped. "Marlo! Right. I have to go and do the thing he asked me to."

"But after that, I will go search for fish, there's a place I want to try." The young stingray assured as he swam across the sea waters with the far north as a target.

...

About 6 hours have passed already, Tim took the liberty to stop and relax every time he felt stamina going extremely low.

That was for the sake of not tiring out his entire body before reaching the end side of the reef, as it would be difficult to go back home through all that distance, if his sleep bars were burned out quicker due to improper stamina management.

Throughout his countless thoughts, the system interrupted with half of an alarm. [Sleep bar = 18/35]

"Oh I can work with that, I think the far north thing is close." And he carried a far point, his fins felt sore from all the swimming.

[Your personal state is stable enough to proceed with task 6.]

[The task is, find and kill any species of starfish.]

"Uhhh... aren't those too big to eat?" Tim questioned, fearing more than a few characteristics of such an animal.

[Most starfish are bigger than you, but aim for the smaller ones.]

[If you plan to eat an entire starfish, system suggests to burn out your hunger bar.]

[Their size is too big for you to carry either on the hidden tribe or your new den, so rule that out as an option from now.]

Feeling anxious simply because of how the starfish was shaped, unwilling to consider any type of danger, he murmured. "Okay, okay. This is for progress. You can do it Tim!"

Hoping that this task doesn't carry any surprises, Timothy partially scolded the system. "If this starfish kisses me or grabs a hold of me, I will go mad!"

[The chances of being raped by a starfish are always low, but never 0.]

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